More than 60 percent of U.S. Latinos were born here

One of its sidebars examined popular misconceptions regarding Hispanics, such as English fluency. It cited a Pew Hispanic Center survey that found that 38 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. are bilingual, and another 24 percent prefer English.

The ratio is even higher for U.S.-born Hispanics, 51 percent of whom prefer English over Spanish.

Given so much public focus on recent immigrants, U.S.-born Latinos are sometimes overlooked. Parade notes that more than 60 percent of Hispanics in America were born here.

Changing times: Only 6 percent of U.S. citizens are of English descent.

Another pertinent statistic: With 50 million Latinos, the U.S. ranks third among the 24 Latin American countries, behind only Brazil and Mexico.

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GOP, House, Boehner deserve praise

The Republicans in the House and their leader, John Boehner, are to be commended for approving an extension of the nation's debt limit.

This vote makes sense because the debt limit extension is needed to cover funds already committed. However, the debt limit will come up again on May 18.

It also requires the House and Senate to pass separate budgets by April 15, but doesn't require the two bodies to agree on a final budget.

The next potential fiscal crisis is the automatic spending cuts (sequester) set for March 1.

After that, an appropriations measure (continuing resolution) needed to avoid a government shutdown will come up on March 17. Republicans have said they will vote to shut the government down on that date.

There will be a lot more fiscal contention in Congress in the months ahead. But will there be comparable legislative effort to create the jobs that will greatly improve the nation's economy?

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House majority leader John Boehner recently accused President Obama of "trying to annihilate the Republican Party."

Boehner must have been confused about the president's position on assault rifles. Those rifles are considered weapons designed for annihilating people, but Obama said he wanted to `banish' assault rifles, not `brandish' them.

Hence, the GOP is safe from any threat of annihilation.

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Ron Paul urges global restraint

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul told Fox News he was against the U.S getting involved militarily in Algeria or elsewhere.

Paul said, "we should have followed the Founders' advice of staying out of internal affairs of other nations because we're flat-out broke."

He questioned why it was necessary "for us to go 6,000 miles away (Pakistan) and kill people with drones."

And he raised the important point that " to send troops to deal with crises in the region (is) in turn inviting `blowback."'

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Panetta wants NATO to expand globally

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaking in London urged NATO to expand its reach into Africa and Asia to seek out terrorists anywhere in the world.

He said NATO (mostly the U.S.) "can't focus on one mission . Instead, they must be creative ." The alliance must "not let budget constraints prevent them from facing security challenges that come up."

Pointing to cybersecurity threats as an escalating problem, Panetta urged NATO to hold a session in the coming year to talk about blocking cyberattacks.

His advice - at least on cybersecurity - makes more sense and is far less likely to deplete the overtaxed budget, to say nothing of our soldiers' lives.

Both Panetta and Ron Paul are retiring from their government positions.

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Thomas Elias lauds voter registration

Columnist Thomas Elias analyzed the increase in voter registration among youth in California in his Jan. 22 column.

He wrote, "About 20 percent of youth voters registered with no party preference, roughly equal to the overall voting public. Independents registering last year numbered almost exactly the same as Republicans.

"Taken together, these numbers continue two trends: Democrats are registering almost twice as many new voters of all ages as Republicans, showing that the GOP is unable or unwilling to adjust to the social and ideological preferences of an increasing majority of Californians.

Elias concludes that Democrats have no reason to be smug. "For the longer Californians stay registered as voters, the less loyal they are to that party, too."

Howard Hurlbut is an emeritus professor of the University of Redlands and a resident of Redlands.